Abstract:
Teaching in the Lower Primary School level, currently referred to as the Foundation
Phase, exposed me to many challenges in my day to day interactions with
learners. One of the challenges was the difficulty to identify barriers to learning
experienced by learners. I resorted to more experienced teachers for assistance.
Some helped but the majority of them shared the same challenge: lack of
knowledge regarding barriers to learning. This, experience led to the present
study.
The most important thrust of the study was to investigate how Grade 3 teachers
identified barriers to learning
The study employed both in the main the Qualitative approach and to a lesser
extent, the Quantitative approach. One Education Circuit was decided upon as a
single unit of study. The research design therefore, is a case study of thirteen
schools which form a single unit. Only Grade 3 teachers within the Foundation
Phase were chosen as a sample due to the scope of the study, time constraints
and limited finances. In view of the fact that I was a Grade 3 teacher at the time of
the study, most of the Grade 3 teachers at the Circuit were well-known to me
because we had attended many workshops together. I decided to include all these
teachers in the sample – hence convenient sampling technique was eventually
adopted.
The findings of the study reveal that the kinds of challenges faced by South African
teachers were not only unique to this country. Elsewhere in the world, some
teachers had grappled with this problem. Many teachers interviewed, explained
that it was difficult to identify different forms of barriers to learning under the
present material conditions even though the majority claimed that they were able to
identify barriers to learning. Teachers also stressed the need for in-service training
in the area of special needs education.
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